Welcome to the Family, Baby
by t3ars0fglass
Summary: The two had talked previously about wanting kids, about wanting to get married, but never had they thought it would happen so soon.
1. Chapter 1

Welcome to the Family, Baby.

Chapter One

She woke with a start, her stomach throbbing inside of her body. The bile that rose inside of her throat was uncontainable. With a jump, Lin ran to the bathroom, the contents of the previous night's dinner spilling into the waste bin. She wiped the vomit away from her lips and sighed, but before she could get the sigh out of her mouth, she puked again. Her forehead felt hot, her bangs stuck to her sweat, and her stomach refused to hold down what she ate. She had to stay home from work. Lin left the bathroom and started for the kitchen to find a phone. She quickly dialed the station.

"Beifong." Her mother answered quickly.

"It's Lin." Her stomach started to rumble again, and she felt the sensation course up her dry throat.

"You were supposed to be here an hour ago!" Toph yelled. The blind Chief of Police was very prompt about time, unless it was her that had to submit to the schedule. "Where are you?" She demanded.

Attempting to answer, Lin's stomach lurched and she dropped the phone and made for the bathroom once more. There was nothing left in her system, all she was left with were painful dry heaves over a full waste bin. When her stomach settled, she picked up the phone. "You still there?"

"Where are you, Lin?" Toph was becoming more agitated by the second, and Lin leaving the phone like that wasn't helping the cause.

"I can't come in today." She explained quickly.

"And why not?"

"I'm sick." The words left her mouth and entered Toph's ears. The phone was silent as her mother remembered what had happened only months prior.

* * *

"_I need Team Eight and Team Nine on guard duty, Ten you're patrolling the city today. The rest of you are working on the Triads. Team One, you're going undercover today. Officer Fashi will lead you as of now. Lin, you're coming with me." Toph stood at the front of the room, barking orders to the entire force. When she had mentioned that Lin would not be working undercover with her team, she stood and started for her mother._

"_I'm supposed to be leading One into the hideouts today." Anger rose within her. She wouldn't miss this chance. _

"_Not today, we have to be somewhere. It's important." Toph told her._

"_What's so important that I can't lead?"_

"_Your grandfather is sick again." Lin frowned, her anger turned to regret, and regret into sorrow. After the One Hundred Year War had ended at the hands of Avatar Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph, Toph had gone home to try and work things out with her parents. She brought home medals from the new Fire Lord, Zuko, and awards from the Earth King, Bumi. Her father, realizing she could handle herself, had allowed her more freedom. This, in turn, permitted their relationship to grow drastically._

_Toph had become very close with her father, Lao Beifong, in the years to come, as well as her mother, Poppy Beifong. They did more things as a family, and neither Lao nor Poppy treated Toph as a helpless, blind girl again. Hearing that her father was sick, it sickened Toph. And Lin was there to witness everything._

_She took Toph's hand in her own and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Come on."_

_When they reached the Beifong manor, a new manor built right outside of Republic City, Poppy greeted them with sad eyes. Lao was dying, that was no secret. "Come, he has mere minutes left." She whispered._

_Lao was a sight. Even on his death bed he looked regal. Toph sat next to him on the bed. "Hey Pa."_

"_Hello, my little Badgermole." He wheezed through a smile. Toph tried to smile, but it came out a sad pity grin. _

"_How yah feeling?" She asked._

"_Oh, my dear. I'm afraid the end is drawing near, and my time in this world is coming to an end." He didn't seem sad about it. Even as Toph tried to contain them though, the tears poured freely from her eyes. "But you mustn't fret, Badgermole. Everyone's time comes to an end, old or young, you have no choice. I am ill, and I'm afraid it's an illness that one cannot make it past." _

"_No, Pa. You're going to be fine!" Toph argued. In her mind, he had to be. "Say you're going to be fine. Lin, tell him he'll be fine!" Lin sat beside the woman on the bed and grabbed Lao's left hand, for his other was being gripped by Toph. _

"_You're going to be fine, Gramps." Lin pleaded, tears brimming her eyes as well._

"_No, love, my time is coming soon, mere minutes. I love you both. You are the greatest things to have happened to me. I want you to remember that, as well as your mother, Toph." He smiled weakly up at Poppy, who couldn't control the tears that dropped to the floor. He didn't get to say anymore, Toph felt his heartbeat slow, and eventually stop. _

"_He's gone." She whispered. All three women burst into tears._

_Lao's funeral was held three days later. All of Team Avatar was there, along with their sons and daughters, now almost grown. Lin, at nineteen years old, stood with Tenzin. She wept into his shoulder as he squeezed her waist closer to him. He really felt for her; he knew how close their family was. Aang and Katara, Sokka and Suki, all made attempts to console Toph. However, Toph sat staring at the funeral casket as though nothing was happening in her head._

_That wasn't true. More thoughts than ever were running through her mind as she remembered the fun things she used to do with her parents. They used to sit in the gardens and eat as a family, and her father would crack lame jokes. He never showed this side of himself until after Toph had come home from the war. She changed a little for him, and he changed for her. _

_She still sat there, hours after the funeral had ended. Lin and Tenzin had left after the funeral, and even Aang and Katara had given up hope in trying to get her to leave her seat. She stared at the casket with fogged eyes. One would think she were a statue, if it weren't for the occasional rise and fall of her chest. Heavy footsteps echoed through the hall. "Toph? You still in here?" The voice was almost as familiar as her own. Sokka. It was the first voice she had heard in hours, and frankly, it hurt her ears a bit. He peered around the corner and into the room. There Toph sat in the front chair on the isle, staring straight ahead. "Spirits, Toph! You've been here this whole time?" No answer came. "The funeral ended six hours ago!" Toph sighed, barely sighed. _

"_Are you okay?" He knelt in front of her and stared into her milky green eyes. "Toph, come on, talk to me." _

"_What?" The sound was barely audible, almost a squeak even. _

"_You need to come home. It's getting dark outside, and everyone's worried about you." He said. _

"_He was sick for a long time, Sokka. It scared me how sick he was." She finally mumbled. "It was heartbreaking. Sick! Dammit, he was sick!" The floodgates opened and she began to cry._

"_I know. I know." Sokka pulled her into a hug. "I know." He placed a kiss to her hair._

* * *

"I'm sick." The words continued to echo in Toph's mind and bring up the dreadful memories.

"Are you feeling okay? Stay put, call Katara. I'll be home in a few minutes. Wrap yourself in blankets and drink some water. I'm going to call Aang and Katara." She rushed hurriedly. The worst was beginning to run through her mind as she remembered the still of her father's heartbeat. "I'll be home in three minutes."

Lin sighed and set the phone down. She cleared some of the papers off of the counter and into the trash before taking a seat at the table. _It's probably just something I ate. _She said to herself. _Yeah, it's just something I ate._ She sat for a few minutes, holding her stomach and leaning her head against the cool wall of the apartment building. Her stomach jumped, she didn't even have time to make it to the bathroom down the hall. She crumbled to her knees in front of the door and dry heaved, occasionally retching up water.

Her mother burst through the door as she heaved again and again. "Lin!" Aang, Katara, and Tenzin ran in behind her to see what the problem was. Lin was in the middle of the floor, gagging repeatedly, not even able to catch a breath. Katara knelt beside her, Tenzin on the other side. "Lin! Oh, no." Toph panicked. She started to move about anxiously; Aang had to take her into another room forcefully before she would stop screaming.

"Okay, Lin," Katara rubbed her back. "Breathe, slowly, breathe. It's okay." The heaving stopped enough for Lin to breathe, as she fell to her side in Tenzin's lap. "Good, breathe." The nineteen year old was gasping for breath. "Slow down," the master waterbender ordered. "You're going to pass out if you keep on like that. Slowly, in. Out. Better?" Lin was still so out of breath she couldn't talk, she simply nodded and lay on her back. Katara began to push and prod on her stomach, occasionally asking if it hurt. When Aang and Toph reentered the room, Lin was rolled onto her side.

"What's wrong with her?" Toph was still a bit shaky, but she seemed more calm than not. Katara poked her side and took out her waterskin.

"You doing better, love?" Tenzin asked her sweetly. She could still only nod in response

"Lin, lay on your back and lift your shirt up for me." Lin did so, and Katara lay the glowing blue water over her stomach. It seeped through the pores in her skin and into her body. As the experienced healer moved it about, Toph constantly questioned what was going on. She pulled the water back out through Lin's mouth. It wasn't a fun thing to experience, in Lin's opinion. "Well, it seems Toph, that Lin here is pregnant. Six weeks to be exact."

"Wh-what?" Tenzin, now holding Lin's hand, asked. "Pregnant?"

"I'm pregnant?" It was astonishing. The two had talked previously about wanting kids, about wanting to get married, but never had they thought it would happen so soon. She smiled brightly up at Tenzin, who wore the biggest of grins upon his face.

"Junior, I am gonna kick your ass so hard, your ancestors will feel it!" Toph yelled. This, Tenzin took as his queue to start running. He didn't get very far before Toph's cables wrapped around his waist and pulled him back.

"Oh dear." Katara sighed. Lin, still as giddy as ever, laughed alongside Aang.

"Welcome to the family, baby." Lin cooed at her stomach.

**:D I don't have words to express my like for this pairing…:D What do you think? I like it, but you can review and tell me what you think! I love you ALL!**

**-LINZINFOREVER**


	2. Chapter 2

Welcome to the Family, Baby

Chapter 2

After the nonstop screaming and oblivion of pain, the room fell completely silent. Not even the sound of ragged breathing filled the room anymore. Lin had slipped past the point of consciousness and into a dark sleep, which had filled the airbender next to her with uncertain apprehensions about the woman. And yet, despite all of the doubts, the man couldn't be any happier, any more scared, or any more upset that Lin wasn't conscious to witness the birth of their son.

However, it the moments after the birth, all had been a deadly quiet, and Tenzin couldn't recall even hearing the baby's pained cries. No, there wasn't a baby's pained cries, and Lin, she wasn't technically there. He could only think that something had gone terribly wrong, that something had happened to the baby, to Lin. He quickly nudged her on side, but received nothing in return. "Lin, come on baby. Wake up. It's over, all over now." His pleas only became more desperate as he shook her constantly. "Lin, wake up! Our son is here." Tenzin's heart began to race and his palms got sweaty, worry etched his face and mind. "Mother, I think something is wrong with Lin!" Everything had moved in slow motion from then on. He was quickly ushered from the room with Toph, kicking and screaming as she might.

And from that point, he sat in the waiting room with Toph, her head in her hands and tears streaming down her face. On multiple occasions he tried to comfort her, but was quickly shut down and silenced. So, he sat there for hours on end, occasionally conversing with the many officers that littered the waiting room with them. They talked about political games and associations with the triads, some talked about bending, but never did one bring up Lin, for fear of triggering another emotional outburst from their Chief. Toph was not doing well, she couldn't sit still, and often found herself pacing the room and knocking on the door. But to no avail, no one answered and time was slipping away from the two soon-to-be's.

Eventually, the door to the waiting room opened, and Tenzin leapt to his feet. "Is everything alright? Where is she? I want to see her, I want to see Lin!" The doctor's grim face and lack of social expression did nothing to help the grown man through his fears. "Please, let me see her!"

"Would you like to meet your son, sir? He is right this way." Tenzin nodded sadly and followed the middle aged man into the nursery. In a small crib, in the corner of the room, accompanied by Katara and Aang, lay a small boy on a little blue swaddling cloth. Aang smiled meekly up at Tenzin, and Katara picked up the little boy and handed him to the new father. The tears could not be stopped as he held his son in his arms for the first time. He had been so scared and worried that something had happened to the baby, that something had gone wrong and he wouldn't get to meet him. The little boy gazed up at him with piercing greenish grey eyes and smiled, reaching up for Tenzin's beard and pulling rather hard on it. Tenzin chuckled lightly and gripped his small hand.

"What's his name?" Katara whispered from behind him, breaking him from his concentration on the little boy.

"Kaze, Lin wanted to name him Kaze." Tenzin cooed the little boy that lay in his arm as he rubbed just under his chin. Kaze yawned and closed his eyes as he made quiet blubbering noises. His father quickly turned on his heel and faced Katara. "Where is she, where is Lin? I want to see her. I want… I want to see her now." Aang, through his large attempts to push the boy back, tumbled to the floor next to Katara. "I want to see her!" The baby in his arms started to whimper softly, so he put him gently back in the crib.

"Tenzin, calm down." Katara warned.

"I want to see Lin! Now!" He rushed past the waterbender and down the hall to the room he knew as Lin's. The angry calls of protest behind him meant nothing; he only walked faster. A doctor rounded the corner and Tenzin grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. "Where is she?" He seethed. "Lin Beifong, where is she!" The elderly man gulped and tugged at the collar of his shirt.

"Down the hall, to the left, through the intensive care doors." Tenzin let the man fall to the ground and began to run through the hall to the intensive care. The doors busted open in his hurry to find Lin, and doctors were pushed out of the way, nurses shrugged to the side. He walked quickly past every door, only peeking inside to see if she was in there. The many shouts from behind him continued, some angry, some pleading, some irritable. Didn't they understand? Didn't they get it? Lin was his everything, his rock, his light, the air he breathed, the words he spoke, the beat of his heart. He needed her to live, to exist, and he was going to see her, even if he died in the process.

All of the doors had been failures, except for the last door on the right. But, something was definitely off when he entered the room. Doctors and nurses were surrounded the patient, holding them down and yelling different profanities to one another. The person on the bed, with the ebony black hair and blue hospital gown, that was the woman he loved, and they were hurting her. Or, at least that's how Tenzin saw it. "Lin! Get away from her! What are you doing? Stop!" He shoved his way into the room and kneeled next to Lin by the bed. She wasn't moving, and in that moment, his heart stopped beating, his mind stopped wandering, his lungs stopped pulling in the air that his body so desired. His tongue swelled in the back of his throat as he sat there, watching her. He watched and he waited, but nothing ever happened. There was no welcoming smile from his lover, there were no questions as to where their newborn son was, there was no sarcastic comment. There was only a pretty and pale face on a white pillow. Tenzin fell back onto his feet and cried, he cried for the first time in a long while. He didn't want to, but it felt good, it was good to cry. And he couldn't stop, didn't stop. The loud sobs stopped everyone on their way to get him. Aang, Katara, Toph. Kya, Bumi, Sokka, and Suki. They all stopped and stared at the white door, too scared to open it. Toph was the first to move towards the door, towards her daughter.

Her hand touched the silver doorknob and twisted ever so slightly. The door creaked as she pulled it back and stepped inside the room. She shut it behind her and walked over to where Tenzin sat. "A great man once told me that everyone's life comes to an end, old or young, you have no choice. I didn't know what he meant when he said that, but I know that this isn't the end of her life, Tenzin. She'll wake up and she'll see her baby. It might not be for a while, but Lin's life in this world is not over." Toph sat on the floor next to him. "I promise." She rubbed his back awkwardly in a futile attempt to comfort him. "Now, I think you should probably go apologize to those doctors. They may work in the hospital, but that doesn't mean they can't be a patient, and I'm pretty sure that you put about three of them in critical condition."

"Yeah," Tenzin sighed. "I should probably say sorry."

**Sorry for the long wait ya'll. Got some stuff happening in my life right now, and it's been difficult. Didn't mean to make you wait, I even had some people commenting on my OTHER stories to tell me to update. SO SORRY! I hope you enjoyed this one though. I had a bit of writers block, but I think this is an okay chapter. **

**-LINZINFOREVER**


	3. Chapter 3

Welcome to the Family, Baby

Chapter 3

For days, it seemed, the anxious family waited in the waiting room of the intensive care hospital room. The damages Tenzin had done were forgotten in the name of Avatar Aang, though the doctors who had been hurt in the rampage were still very skeptical of the second-to-last airbender. Nonetheless, it would have been impossible to deny access to the waiting room, and Tenzin, after nurses questioned him for signs of mental illness, was deemed fit to stay with his family.

He often visited his son in the nursery, Kaze was very warm to his father. The tiny bundle babbled towards Tenzin whenever he was held. He slept whenever the man held him, he ate greedily whenever he was fed, and he rarely ever cried. However, he was born premature and was found to have breathing troubles and stomach issues, which only increased Toph's newfound worried nature.

The nurses made agreements to give constant reports on Lin's health, but no real progress was ever made. Tenzin had deep blue and purple bruises under his eyes from lack of sleep, and his cheeks were starting to sink in. Toph wasn't eating, she wasn't sleeping, and she wasn't working. Republic City could have been being bombed and she would have opted to stay in the hospital near Lin, her baby. She had just drifted off to a light slumber when the shouts of doctors reached her acutely tuned ears.

"She's waking up! Get the belts! Keep her from moving, she'll rupture the stitches!" She readily leapt to her feet, grabbing Tenzin in the process and rushing to the doors.

"Ma'am, you are not allowed in there." A nurse told her sternly.

"You will permit me access to see my daughter, or I will throw your ass in jail." The darkness her blind eyes portrayed sunk through the woman, who gulped loudly and opened the doors for the Chief. "Thank you, have a nice day." Toph gripped Tenzin tighter and dragged him through the halls of the white walled infirmary, down to the last room on the right, the one with the pretty and pale face.

But there wasn't a pretty and pale face, the face that had been in that room was still very pretty, but traced with red hot anger as she thrashed about the hospital bed. Lin felt around her body for the heartbeat that once radiated from her flat stomach but found not a one. Her painstaking wails shattered the eardrums of nearly every person in a two hundred foot radius, causing many of the doctors to turn to Tenzin and Toph for help. The two nodded and ushered the medics out of the room. Tenzin was the first to make it to her side, after a week of not hearing her voice he wanted to be the first to exchange words with her. "Lin?" He whispered softly from beside her. She continued to sob and reached out to clutch his robes for support. "Baby, what's wrong?"

"What do you mean 'what's wrong'? The baby is gone!" She pointed to her belly and sobbed. "It's gone!" Tenzin chuckled lightly, receiving a disgusted look from the woman beside him. "You're laughing? What the hell is wrong with you!"

"Linny, the baby is just fine. Do you not remember anything? You've been out for nearly a week." She shook her head and wiped the tears from her red and puffy eyes. "Well," He began. "He came-"

"He? We have a boy?" Tenzin nodded.

"He came about a month early, so he has some troubles, but he is fine. You delivered him breech, and after you delivered him, your womb was exhausted and it didn't clot in time to stop the bleeding. You put up quite a fight, but you had to undergo surgery to remove a fallopian tube and cauterize the womb." He turned to Toph. "Go get the baby." She nodded quietly before tip toeing out of the room. When he turned to face Lin once more, he was abruptly pulled down by the front of his robe. Soft, pink lips were crushed onto his in a feverish attempt to say a proper hello. "I missed you." He whispered between kisses. "So much. I love you."

"I love you too."

"Ahem." The two pulled away from each other, both slightly blushing, but very embarrassed. Katara and Aang strode through the door with Toph and Kaze on their heels. Lin's eyes widened when she saw the little boy in front of her, and her arms immediately stretched out in a fleeting attempt to rekindle the life she had come to know and love the previous eight months. Toph placed her grandchild in her daughter's arms and stepped back to savor the special moment.

Lin stared into her son's eyes, noticing the same greyish-green color that Tenzin had. Never before had she seen eyes such a color, or a face so perfect and a feeling so overwhelming. Floods of joyful tears fell from her cheeks as the little life reached for his mother's face, intently placing a hand on her cheek and cooing as she had to her stomach so many times. "Hello there." The baby, so overjoyed, smiled and pulled Lin's hair. She winced slightly, her smile never falling. She looked around the room. "I guess I missed the naming day?" The silence from her family confirmed her suspicions. "That's alright, he's here and he's healthy. Kaze." She cooed. Her son gripped her finger in his tiny hand. "I love you."

**Well, another very ,very short chapter, only like 1000 words. Sorry about that. But I want to explain a few things. Lin had a pregnancy where the baby had turned sideways and came out breech, resulting in no weight gain during the pregnancy. Yes that is possible. Second, there will be a rather large time skip and a few boring chapters to follow, but nonetheless, they will be heartfelt. This story is somewhat canon to the show, with a few minor changes. **

**Questions? Criticism? Flames? Feel free to review, inspire, or shoot me down. I honestly like to read the reviews. I appreciate a specific comment from EARTHANDAIR1890. You have almost no idea how happy that made me. Thank you! Well, please review; it inspires me to write more. Love you guys.**

**-LINZINFOREVER**


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